Following the sudden drop, liquidations of BTC perpetual swap reached $226 million on BitMEX.

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Source: Skew” data-reactid=”47″ type=”text”>Source: Skew

The plunge brought the digital asset’s month-long rally to a halt. In April, the bitcoin price jumped over 38% from around $6,200 to $8,600. The price continued to rise in early May and had been flirting around the $10,000 level since May 7.

Although bitcoin briefly traversed $10,000 on May 8, the price soon collapsed and now back to its early late April level.

Adding to the market volatility, the bitcoin halving is just two days away. As the block reward decreases from 12.5 BTC per block to 6.25 BTC, many miners may choose to switch off some mining machines when profit margins become unfavorable.